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Reclaim your bank holiday!

August 25th marked the last bank holiday of the summer and provided millions of employees across the UK with an opportunity to enjoy a “bonus day” with their friends and family. At Simplicity however, we wonder how many of you actually took that opportunity? And how many of you ended up at your ever-familiar desk or at the very least, separated from your loved ones by a smartphone or tablet.

Indeed, for recruitment business owners, the mobile device has become symbolic of an umbilical cord; a vital link between them and their business and no matter how many good intentions they have, cutting that cord will mean severing the link between your company and its lifeblood. But what if you could re-claim 40% of your normal working week? Would that mean you’d be able to savour those bank holidays or finally book that all-inclusive break without having to first interrogate the hotel as to how their Wi-Fi is performing? Would it mean you could finally switch off without your business suffering?

You’d be one of the lucky ones. According to recent research, more than 30% of business owners didn’t take a summer holiday last year and meanwhile, 400,000 people in the UK report that work related stress is at a level where they believe it is making them ill. This isn’t a small problem which a weekend in Bognor Regis will solve - this is becoming a UK-wide epidemic and if you don’t do something about it soon, there are very real and very serious consequences.

Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University says, “There's profound evidence that if you work extremely long hours over a sustained period you'll end up being less productive.

“There's interesting respite research coming out of the US and Israel which suggests that people who take holidays return feeling healthier and psychologically more robust. This is good for their health, well-being and family relationships. Running a business often means not seeing loved ones as much as we'd like. Taking a break enables us to re-engage with them, otherwise marriages and family life can suffer enormously. Investing in relationships is as important as investing in your own health.”

Reinforcing this belief is German vehicle maker Daimler. You may have seen in the press recently that they have taken a fresh approach to the long-standing “out of office” reply. Anyone who sends a Daimler employee an email during the recipient’s holiday will receive something similar to the following:

“I am on vacation. I cannot read your email. Your email is being deleted. Please contact Hans or Monika if it's really important, or resend the email after I'm back in the office. Danke Schoen.”

The move follows on from Volkswagen’s decision to turn email off after office hours and new guidelines in France ordering workers in some sectors to ignore work emails when they go home. Daimler spokesperson Oliver Wihofski is reported to have said, “The response is 99% positive - everybody says,’ that’s a real nice thing, I would love to have that too’. Would you?

Of course, at Simplicity we realise that behind every entrepreneur, there is a robust and tireless work ethic but we also realise that more often than not, the tasks recruitment business owners become ingrained in can actually waste time. For instance - how much of your week do you dedicate to overseeing payroll? Chasing admin? Pushing paper? Simplicity can take away these burdens:

Calculate payroll

Deduct tax & NI and generate your workers’ NET pay figure

Calculate Employers’ NI contribution

Email wage slips

Pay your workers directly into their bank accounts each Friday

Create invoices, match them to your timesheets and send them out

Manage credit control

Report key management information online

In our experience, recruiters have told us that when these burdens are offloaded and outsourced, they can regain 2 days of their week; days which they can re-focus onto other tasks. So whether you want to start enjoying your bank holidays or spend more time growing your business, surely it’s time make a change? Contact Simplicity to find out how easy it is.